Our Capabilities

Our Capabilities

Digital Strategy

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User Experience

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Technology Services

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Sitecore

Any agency worth their salt will figure out how to get done, what the client needs done. Agency Oasis goes further and does what our clients don’t know needs to be done. Our capabilities aren’t focused in a single tool or trade. Agency Oasis is a group of problem solvers that use a suite of tools and disciplines and a collaborative approach to challenge standard operating procedure.

In the history of communication, interactive, with its devices and consumption, is still in its infancy. Collectively as an industry we are defining standards on a daily basis and seeing the half-life of technologies collapse on themselves.

So when you think of capabilities, don’t be satiated with department names or buzzwords. Demand characteristics that transcend skillsets and tools: thought leadership, diligence, dedication and innovative thinking.

There are a slew of subjects to think through and plan out when you are building an interactive application – and though one tries to standardize the process and make it repeatable, every client organization is different and requires a slightly altered approach. And this too, is a capability of Agency Oasis. You likely want to read in a little more detail, so go ahead. Some helpful content for you: Digital Strategy, User Experience, Technology Services and Sitecore Development.

Digital Strategy

User Experience

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Technology Services

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Sitecore

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Our Capabilities

Digital is an extension of marketing operations and the highly visible, accessible, persuasive arm of any brand.

Many digital ecosystems have owned, earned and paid media components to ensure the entirety of the customer journey is within their sphere of influence. As businesses undergo digital transformations and look to, “digital first,” strategies must be adjusted. Agency Oasis Digital Strategy views digital as a program requiring deep understanding of the consumer and the capabilities of the business to satisfy well-structured measurement and performance goals. Below you will find the most common strategy subjects we work with our clients on. Each client is different and arrives with challenging and unique business goals we build solutions for.

Initial Research and Strategy

Content Strategy

Measurement Planning (KPI)

Content Migration Strategy

Social Strategy

Optimization Planning

Personalization Strategy

Audience Opinion Surveys

The data used to formulate personas and their associated attributes is gathered through our Discovery process with client stakeholders. Although this data is typically accurate, it will become the foundation for many downstream decisions in the process of designing and developing a website. As such, there is a risk mitigating opportunity to validate the assumptions made against actual user opinions. Agency Oasis can facilitate one-on-one or group style sessions with sample individuals from your persona groups. We will recommend the facilitation scripts and top level hypotheses to be validated. Typical deliverables from this process include a presentation of findings and a recommendations summary of changes to persona profiles.

Committee Building

Having the right client-side team is imperative to realizing an effective and timely website launch. Before your project begins, Agency Oasis can assist in the decision process of determining the best set of stakeholders to have "in the room.” We will help you balance the relative roles and expertise against the threats of group size and multiple approval tiers.

Goal Mapping & Content Recommendations

On the foundation of user personas, Agency Oasis is able to recommend the optimal content and functionality necessary for a website to elicit the desired conversion. We conduct weighting exercises to consider all content types determine the optimal organization of content within the User Experience. In addition to cataloging all existing content available to us, we will also provide recommendations for content to enhance the experience. This includes user generated content, specifications for photography and copywriting, graphic visualizations, experiential interfaces, and integration with external data sources.

Persona Creation

Perhaps the single most important planning step in the creation of digital marketing materials is the documentation of personas. Often performed as a full-day onsite session with our client stakeholder group, Agency Oasis will lead sessions to identify all user types and then evolve these roles into primary audience personas. This process includes the profiling of audience characteristics, attitudes, content goals, conversion points, SEO/SEM, value prop messaging, and opportunities for personalization. Downstream deliverables including Wireframe Architecture and User Interface Design will be vetted against these personas in determining effectiveness.

Analytics Analysis

Understanding where your audience is coming from, what content they're consuming, how long they're staying, and where they're leaving are all very important data points within our process. They are used to influence a revised organization of content and relevant functionalities. In fact, leveraging this data prior to the scoping of a project can also be very useful to measure the degree of change necessary in order to achieve the desired results. Agency Oasis can help you analyze this data at a high level and collaborate on defining "big idea" User Experience concepts to drive the necessary change.

Visual & Messaging Platform

While the Agency Oasis creative team is highly proficient in extending an existing brand standard and campaign concept to the interactive channel,
we have also crafted a process to assist those clients whose websites will become the centerpiece of a new marketing campaign. Within this process we call Agency Oasis Insights™, we leverage the unique information gained regarding user attitudes, product/service offering, and competitive landscape and leverage it to crystalize a unique value proposition, including campaign messaging and visuals. This ensures that the website is much more than a functional tool for your business. It provides the brand building, persuasive qualities necessary to evoke a desired and measurable conversion.

User Experience

Technology Services

Sitecore

Our Capabilities

Digital Strategy

The Agency Oasis in-house User Experience team has completed the full design of hundreds of websites, the majority of which are large-scale initiatives with complex development requirements.

Our team is comprised of Information Architects, critical to the development of highly functioning sites and seasoned Interactive Design Specialists who are experts in translating the nuances of a brand into the Interactive medium.

Using the information and insights created through the Discovery and Strategy portions of the project, Oasis IA and Design teams will work in tandem with the client to catalog all pages for the web property and hierarchically arrange that information into a sitemap. This process, while grounded in best practices for user goal achievement, navigability, and content variability, will explore opportunities for unique, brand-building user Interfaces (AKA: “big ideas.”) We see Interactive Design as an opportunity to layer upon the two-dimensional aspects of a brand standard by introducing interactivity, motion, video, and non-linear content. It is a unique opportunity to expand upon the voice of a company through the way in which content is presented.

We universally avoid cliché in imagery and strive to present visual alternatives throughout the design process. Accomplished, in-house art direction will ensure professionalism and personality within the design without the pitfalls of a design resource that doesn't understand best practices and the complexities of developing for database driven content.

Discovery Definition and Persona Development

Agency Oasis has honed our discovery through our decades of Interactive Experience. Through onsite interviews and business requirement gathering sessions, Oasis defines personas and the businesses goals associated with them. Once personas are defined, Oasis identifies the content that will motivate users to achieve the desired goals within the Interactive experience. The output of this process is a Digital Strategy Roadmap that details Information Architecture recommendations and defined personas that align to the defined business goals.

Clickable Sitemap

Based on the information we gather from the Define session, we take the first step to comprehensive website definition. The Sitemap is a visual representation of the site information structure, showing navigation organization and content relationships. It is also a staged HTML website, allowing users to click into each page template to see initial page elements and content hierarchy. Having a staged website also allows for a consistent URL that will be updated following feedback to ensure all stakeholders are always reviewing the most up to date project documents.

Clickable Prototypes

Once the sitemap is finalized, Agency Oasis develops a clickable prototype for both desktop/tablet and mobile. This clickable prototype functions as a blueprint for the website, outlining features and functionality, detailing the business logic that drives presentation of dynamic content and identifying content that is eligible for personalization. The prototype mimics a fully functional website experience, but is devoid of design; it is complete with sample interactions, menu states, page interactions and accurate link targets. The clickable prototype allows both internal and external stakeholders to interact with the proposed features and behavior for the website, ensuring that the proper information hierarchy and site structure are approved before design and development begins. The prototype provides a foundation upon which the presentation layer can be applied, and it provides the development team with a blueprint for functional layer relationships.

Element placement

Functional overview of all elements

Elemental relationships in layouts

Opportunity to flesh out functional needs and limitations

Visual representation of business requirements

User Testing

User Testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction Design to evaluate an understanding and acceptance of any Interactive Experience, in this case the Prototype of a website, with real end-users. Usability Testing focuses on measuring a human-made product's capacity to meet its intended purpose. The aim is to observe people using the product to discover errors and areas of improvement. At Agency Oasis we utilize our unique Clickable Prototype deliverable to facilitate user testing at an early phase in the project to provide valid end-user feedback that can be implemented before Design and Development commence.

Brand Experience

The Oasis Design Team are experts at translating brand visuals to the specifics of interactive media. We are experienced with working with established brands and meeting their very strict graphic standards and guidelines. But we really shine when we are challenged with a brand that is still developing their value proposition and graphic look.

Applying a visual brand standard to Interactive Media is a very specialized operation. Our team of expert User Interface Designers do much more than make web pages look stunning. We plan for the variability of content and viewing area inherent in an experience that will change over time and be viewed on a multitude of device types. Our goals within any project are to provide a variety of Design alternatives and push the boundaries of experience, while staying within the boundaries of the brand. We understand that the presentation of design is equally important to the creative quality. To that end, we discuss the rationale behind each design decision and are skilled at facilitating the review and approval of executive audiences.

Usability Testing

For large-scale Interactive Design projects, we often recommend validating the Information Architecture and Design decisions made by the agency/client team through formal Usability Testing. Occurring at a Wireframe and/or Design phase, we coordinate surveys with test audiences and analyze results. As necessary, adjustments can be made within these planning phases, such that any brand adoption and performance related risks can be mitigated prior to the website launch.

Technology Services

Sitecore

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Our Capabilities

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Digital Strategy

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User Experience

At Agency Oasis, our Development team understands that technology for technology’s sake isn’t the way to go.

Our crucial goal with every client is to ensure that the data layer, code layer, and presentation layer are in harmony. Our team carefully considers the system requirements, limitations, and integrations before the first zero or one is ever keyed. To learn more about our technical expertise, visit our Sitecore Blog.

User Experience

Technology Services

The Agency Oasis Development Team has developed a wide range of high performance websites, from simple to even the most complex Sitecore integrations. Our award-winning MVPs and Sitecore-certified developers work with you from planning all the way through deployment and beyond, helping you maximize the effectiveness and usability of your digital presence. As a Sitecore Platinum Partner in eCommerce, CRM and CEP, we have successfully deployed well over one hundred sites/applications on the Sitecore platform. We work with the world's top brands and organizations across a range of industries. Our clients regularly benefit from our extensive experience through guided strategic and tactical consultations with our senior level developers who are involved from initial requirements gathering until the final deployment.

Agency Oasis has been awarded the Sitecore Site of the Year for Best Legal Site in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, Agency Oasis created an award-winning site for Hanson Bridgett, followed by our work with McGuireWoods law firm in 2012.Sitecore’s Site of the Year contest recognizes customers who have developed the most outstanding website using Sitecore software.

Hanson Bridgett chose Sitecore partner Agency Oasis to integrate an advanced creative design into the enterprise level content management system to create an elegant and sophisticated site. Agency Oasis also architected and developed custom Sitecore content management tools to equip Hanson Bridgett’s marketing and editorial teams with the ability to perform administrative tasks and make content updates easily.

In 2012, McGuireWoods approached Oasis with very clear and well defined business problems which spanned audiences from clients and prospective clients to internal stakeholders in marketing and at the executive level to attorney's themselves. Agency Oasis created a centralized location for all data for the company at a business and marketing level; allowing a information flow which brought the management steps from over ten to less than three. Additionally, specific enhancements to the Sitecore platform where created allowing for custom actions on the site specific to the user engaging.

The Sitecore MVP program recognizes the top technical community leaders of Web Content Management Systems. The Sitecore MVP award honors the most active Sitecore members around the world who share their knowledge through their invaluable involvement within the Sitecore community. Lars Fløe Nielsen, Senior VP of Technical Marketing, states that, “Sitecore MVPs are technology experts who inspire others to learn and grow through active participation in the Sitecore technical community. The MVPs share the same passion for technology and a demonstrated willingness to help others innovate and advance the use of Web strategies.”1

Every year, Sitecore MVPs are chosen through an extensive evaluation process put forth by an independent panel of Sitecore employees from technical, product marketing, and executive positions. This panel reviews all nominations factoring in quality, quantity, and the level of impact of the nominees’ involvement. The content of their contributions include:

Agency Oasis is a Sitecore certified specialist in CEP (Customer Engagement Platform), the fastest growing segment of Sitecore’s lead channels! With our technical proficiency and experience, we can leverage the stability and flexibility of Sitecore’s Customer Engagement Platform, including:

User friendly editing capabilities and an intuitive interface

In-depth analytics that measure campaign success, site traffic and visitor behavior at a granular level

Engagement automation to communicate with customers across all channels and maximize efficiency of moving prospects through the sales funnel

Profile and persona scoring to design a personalized user experience1

The Sitecore Partner Specialization Program offers Sitecore partners the opportunity to focus on and develop core competencies as they relate to the Sitecore product offering. Sitecore specialists are chosen through an extensive evaluation process in which the requirements for qualifications include:

Agency Oasis is a proud Sitecore certified specialist in CRM (Customer Relation Management). The Sitecore Partner Specialization Program offers Sitecore partners the opportunity to focus on and develop core competencies as they relate to the Sitecore product offering. Sitecore specialists are chosen through an extensive evaluation process in which the requirements for qualifications include:

6 months minimum as a Sitecore Certified Partner

Successful deployment, Live Site, on Sitecore

Specialization experience is associated with a Sitecore project

A live review of the project with a Sitecore technical professional

Agency Oasis is recognized for its experience integrating the CRM component in various web application projects; the Sitecore component and our technical expertise helps organizations:

Better understand web interactions and their impact on customer wins and revenue

Use customer intelligence to enhance conversion rates

Quickly & easily create forms for any purpose without programming or IT support

Capture data in incomplete forms

Automatically capture new leads and valuable prospect data directly into the CRM system1